Furious grandmother of baby murdered and abused by teacher calls for social workers to be 'sacked' over missed chances to save infant

By RICHARD MARSDEN and ANDREW CHAMBERLAIN Published: 00:26, 16 June 2026 | Updated: 00:26, 16 June 2026 The grandmother of a baby sexually abused and murdered by a teacher who was adopting him has called for social workers to be 'sacked' over missed chances to save the infant. Preston Davey went to hospital three times in just over two months before he died in July 2023 after incidents including a seizure, breathing difficulties and a broken elbow. But the infant was not removed from depraved Jamie Varley, 37, and his partner John McGowan-Fazakerley, 32, who were in the process of adopting him. One council social worker wrote in her notes that the hospital visits 'made me ponder a little bit as to whether there was a problem', adding: 'I decided there wasn't'. Maternal grandmother Debbie Davey, 66, said: 'I want everybody from social services involved with Preston sacked. No one has ever said sorry. Not one of them. 'And if they did say sorry it wouldn't make any difference. What's done is done.' She added: 'Social services might have been hesitant to act when they saw Preston because they may have been accused of being homophobic. 'They didn't see through them and see what was going on to Preston. Preston Davey with mother Sarah before he was placed with Varley and McGowan-Fazakerley 'But as soon as you see a baby with a broken bone, you ask questions'. She added: 'Everyone involved with Preston is still working. That is not right.' Preston was taken under social services care just five days after his birth in Wythenshawe Hospital, Manchester, because his convicted murderer mother Sarah Davey, now 42, gave birth while still a prisoner. Davey was jailed with her friend Lisa Healey for the horrific murder of pensioner Lily Lilley, 71, in Oldham, Greater Manchester, in 1998, when she was just 14. Healey was 15 at the time of the crime. Preston was conceived when Davey was in and out of jail, being released and re-incarcerated for breaking her conditions at least eight times before her final release in 2024. Mrs Davey, who was given custody by the Family Court of an older child her daughter had in 2019, revealed she wanted to bring up Preston with his sibling. But she was 'very poorly' with breast cancer and had to pull out of adoption proceedings. Mrs Davey said she prefers children to 'have a mother and a father' - but believes the gay couple, outwardly respectable with good jobs and an immaculate home, were chosen for politically correct reasons because it 'fitted well for two men to adopt'. Murdered baby Preston Davey's grandmother wanted to bring him up with his sibling  Social workers assured her Varley and McGowan-Fazakerley, living 50 miles away in the Lancashire seaside resort of Blackpool, were 'the most beautiful people and they would give him everything'. In reality, she believes, the 'perverted' pair 'wanted a baby to abuse'. Mrs Davey added: 'I think they had a sinister plan for Preston. It is just sick.' Varley and McGowan-Fazakerley's trial heard social services, hospital staff and police missed a string of opportunities to intervene. Police were made aware of the first admission to Blackpool Victoria Hospital on May 25, 2023, when he had a suspected seizure and needed resuscitation. But officers sent away without seeing Preston, Varley or McGowan-Fazakerley after medical staff said they had no 'safeguarding concerns'. Preston went back to hospital with unexplained rashes on June 30, when hospital staff noticed bruising which was explained away by Varley, and for the broken elbow on July 6, the morning after the injury happened. Social services alerted to each of the incidents but hospital staff did not flag safeguarding concerns so they were not escalated, Oldham Council said. Schoolteacher Jamie Varley, 37, convicted of sexually abusing and murdering Preston Davey  Secondary school head of Year 11 Varley, DBS checked and trained in child safeguarding, and sales rep McGowan-Fazakerley were in at times daily contact with adoption agency Adoption Now, via phone calls and WhatsApp messages. The couple explained away the seizure as an illness, while Varley claimed bruising found on June 30 was from a toybox falling on Preston. He showed a video to hospital staff of what he said was the incident – which was actually from 12 days earlier but nobody checked the date. Meanwhile, Varley said the broken elbow was from the baby falling from his grip as he tried to lay him in his cot. Preston died on July 27, 2023, after injuries sustained while in Varley's sole care as McGowan-Fazakerley was at work. A post mortem examination found he had been 'smothered' during a sexual assault, had bruising to the back of his throat and serious internal injuries. The autopsy also found evidence his airways had been blocked unnaturally on previous occasions. One Oldham Council social worker, Amy Shepherdson, visited the couple's home on July 4, the day before Preston's elbow was broken, and found he was 'pale and did not seem himself'. John McGowan-Fazakerley, 32, allowed Preston's death at Varley's hands Preston suffered the injury on the night of July 5 and was taken to hospital the following day. Ms Shepherdson was contacted by a worried Varley on the morning of May 6 before he took Preston to A&E, then by medical staff who said there were no 'safeguarding worries'. An independent senior Oldham Council social worker, Helen Magee, visited the couple on July 7, to check on Preston because of the number of hospital admissions. Her visit was less than three weeks before his death on July 27. But she decided not to escalate matters. In notes intended for Preston when he was older, she said: 'I did watch your responses to your daddies quite carefully as I'm aware that you had a few hospital admissions and this made me ponder a little bit as to whether there was a problem. I decided there wasn't.' Separately, staff at private agency Adoption Now, which placed Preston with Varley and McGowan-Fazakerley on the council's behalf, also did not intervene and are still working. Mrs Davey believes that even though the hospital staff did not raise 'safeguarding' concerns, social workers should still have shown better 'curiosity' due to the number of incidents. She said: 'I hate social services with a passion. What they did was disgusting. The social worker involved in Preston's case is still working and I am fuming about that. Varley collapsed in histrionics at Blackpool Victoria Hospital when told Preston had died 'She was supposed to be checking on Preston. I think it's terrible that she is still working and my baby is dead.' Mrs Davey revealed she begged social services to allow Preston to stay with foster parents until she received the all-clear, rather than proceed with having him adopted. She added: 'If I hadn't been ill, he would have been here with me. I said I would have him. 'If they'd agreed, he would be alive. He was loved and he was wanted. I don't want people to think he was just put into care.' She believes Varley and McGowan-Fazakerley wanted to adopt Preston because they thought 'there'd be no comeback'. Mrs Davey said: 'Most children who are being adopted have a story behind them, whereas Preston didn't, so that's why they choose him.' She said that after finding out the circumstances of Preston's death, she 'went mad with social services'. She said: 'We have since had meeting after meeting but they won't tell me much until after the court case.' Varley, left, and McGowan-Fazakerley were on trial for seven weeks at Preston Crown Court The grandmother described how she was present at Preston's birth in June 2022 at Wythenshawe Hospital and had 'loved him from that moment'. She said: 'When he was born, I'd been diagnosed with breast cancer and was feeling OK because I'd not yet started the treatment. 'But I knew I was starting chemo the following week and wouldn't be well enough to have him.' Sarah Davey was allowed to keep her son for a week but was then 'told he was going to a foster home,' Mrs Davey said. She told how Preston was 'thriving' under the care of experienced couple Sandra and Paul Cooper, who had looked after 43 babies in 27 years. 'The foster parents used to take him to see Sarah. They used to send photos to us,' Mrs Davey said. Preston Davey was suffocated and had over 40 bruises and injuries, an autopsy revealed Preston lived with the Coopers for around six months before social services informed Sarah they had found possible adoption parents. Preston Davey was suffocated and had over 40 bruises and injuries, an autopsy revealed But Mrs Davey said: 'I didn't like that it was two men adopting Preston because I don't believe two men should bring up a child. 'I am not a bit prejudiced (against gay people), but I think a child should be brought up by a mum and a dad. That is my belief. 'The social worker assured me that they were the most beautiful people and they would give him everything. 'Social services said they had checked them out. They went to the foster parents' home to bath Preston, and the foster parents went to their house.' Meanwhile, her daughter 'just had a feeling something was right. A mother's intuition'. Mrs Davey said: 'Sarah knew they (Varley and McGowan-Fazakerley) were wrong for Preston, and she even told the foster mother. It wasn't because it was two men. 'She said it could have been two other men, that wouldn't have bothered her, but she had a horrible feeling about those two and she had said that all along. 'She said 'mam, it's something about those two that just doesn't seem right'.' She added: 'We wanted social services to allow Preston to stay with foster parents until I was better but they wouldn't allow it. Debbie Davey says she and Sarah have 'nightmares' about Preston's horrific ordeal 'It would have only been for a few extra months. If they would have kept Preston in foster care, he could have been with his sibling when I recovered.' Mrs Davey, now cancer-free, believes photographs of Preston while in Varley and McGowan-Fazakerley's care – shown to the jury - show a 'terrible' decline. She said: 'You can visibly see the deterioration from when he left his foster parents. It was so shocking. 'I don't know how they could plead not guilty and force us to watch the videos and see the photos (as evidence) during the trial.' As Varley and McGowan-Fazakerley – who the Daveys never met before their arrests - face spending many years in prison, Mrs Davey said: 'It has broken my heart. I just want to kill them. 'Jamie Varley will hopefully get life but I don't know about the other one. I want double figures for him.' Mrs Davey revealed she and her daughter 'were only ever told of those two who were being considered for the adopted'. 'There must have been suitable couples from Oldham and I don't know why they chose people from Blackpool,' she said. Mrs Davey added: 'I wrote letters to (Preston) saying how much I loved him. I said that I was sorry and I would fight for him. 'They (Varley and McGowan-Fazakerley) wrote one back but not in their real names. 'They said they'd got him into school, booked three holidays abroad and he's started in nursery school and it was all positive. 'I thought it was lovely and maybe he is in the right place…. going abroad three times; I wouldn't be able to do that… but it was all lies.' The grandmother told of her family's agony as there was a two-year delay between Preston's death and Varley and McGowan-Fazakerley being charged last June. She said: 'They were out there enjoying while my baby had been murdered. They were out there gallivanting. 'They have had two years to put their story together. I said (to police), you've just let them both out get on with their lives for two years.' Mrs Davey said of McGowan-Fazakerley's denials that he 'knew' Preston was being abused: 'He knew. You can't live with someone and not know. And he joined in. The grandmother revealed she 'can't sleep at night' and was 'physically ill at first', after Preston's death, 'just being sick all the time' – while her daughter is 'absolutely broken'. She said: 'I can't help much because we both end up crying our eyes out. Now I just have nightmares. I think he was abused from first day.' Their ordeal has continued through the court case. Mrs Davey, who revealed she is on anti-depressants, said listening to the most harrowing evidence 'just took everything out of my stomach'. She added: 'I've eaten two pieces of toast this morning but I have not eaten for days. 'Everything I have tried to eat I have brought back up. 'Sarah has lost a terrible lot of weight. Everyone puts that down to drugs because she used to be on drugs. She is not at all. It is because she is ill with it all. 'She is just not eating. I try to make her eat but she brings it back up herself. Every time she comes back from court she is crying.' Mrs Davey also told how seeing 'heartbreaking' photographs of Preston being left in the bath and mistreated on play equipment 'made me cry'. Recalling footage shown in court of Preston losing focus in his eyes while being spun around at high speed on a teacup ride – meant for older children rather than babies – Mrs Davey said: 'It was unbelievable. You just wouldn't do that to a baby of that age.' Oldham Council said Mrs Davey withdrew from adoption proceedings due to ill health. It said it has no record of contact from her to request the process was put on hold during her cancer treatment. Oldham Council say no staff have been disciplined or sacked following the infant's death but insist an independent child safeguarding practice review is being carried out and will report in due course. No comments have so far been submitted. Why not be the first to send us your thoughts, or debate this issue live on our message boards. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. 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